Currently Creating - 18 March 2015

One of our cats has the nickname "screenkitty".  Screenkitty just came up and patted at the screen and turned on capslock.  He wants to help with the blogging.

An update on my crochet: The following is what I wrote on the Champagne and Socks Ravelry group last night:-

I’m on the third last border round of the Jabyblanket, and In what I can only assume is a fit of nerves relating either to whether I will run out of yarn, or a dislike of the large gauge and the current look of the border, I have rationalised setting that project aside for another repeat of the same pattern for a baby who is in fact due before the Jade Baby. This will probably be the final time I do this pattern for a while, but it works up very quickly and takes very little concentration, which is a benefit when one realises that there is a baby due around Easter, while the one whose blanket is finished is not due until June. Prioritisation, I suck at it.

This morning, while I was taking photos of yarn (I'm trying to put my stash into Ravelry as well as clearing up my craft room etc), I was looking at the photos of the Elphieblanket and realised that the problem with the Jabyblanket is that I've missed a treble in each group.  Sigh.

(Photo is of the stuff up of the border.)

On the other hand, it explains why I thought the border looked odd - it *was* odd.  And I'm glad I put it down because it means there's less to pull out.

Having sorted that out, I may in fact pick it back up tonight and frog back the mistake and get into fixing this, despite realising that I've been making up these blankets in the wrong 'birth order', so to speak.

So then there's the new project: yet again the same pattern, this time with a ply and hook in between the very small Elphieblanket and the very large Jabyblanket.  Currently using a very cheap hook, because I'm not sure where my tin of good quality hooks has gone (somewhere in the craft room, no doubt.)  Doesn't look like much at the moment, but it will grow rapidly, I'm sure.

Finally - one of the additional reasons why this may be the last time for a while I work on this pattern?  The pattern itself got attacked by the kittyboys last night and has a couple of rips in important places.  Oops.

30 lists catch up - days 8 to 11

I got behind again - but not as far behind as I am on #adventword... (oops)!  So here's a few back numbers.

• "Top Gear" used to be my go-to cheering-up show, but it doesn't work so well anymore.  I think Clarkson hit the offensiveness saturation level in the last two years.  But old challenge DVDs still work.
• Watching the kitty-boys being cute
• Singing "Let it Go", and/or Adele songs, preferably at the top of my lungs
• Our garden

• My mother - for good or bad
• My partner
• Theologians and thinkers like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Joan Chittester, and Robert Gribben
• Feminists like Dorothy Macrae-McMahon

• Sopa Seca (Moosewood Classics cookbook)
• Trenette al Pesto (also Moosewood Classics cookbook)
• Rice croquettes
• Sandbaklse (Swedish Christmas cookies)
• Pastry

• Cleaning house
• Washing the dishes
• Dealing with my manager at work
• At least half my desk-work
• Taking care of finances.

At Chez Stutters lately

I don't quite know what happened, but I've been neglecting this blog in a way I never meant to.

On the other hand, I'm almost totally up to date with Project Life - okay, so there's some journalling to do here and there, but in general, I'm up to date.  (So up to date that I actually did last week's spread on Sunday, when the week hadn't even finished yet.)

But here's some news and photos from around the place.

Cats
It was our Bion's first birthday yesterday - he is officially no longer a kitten!  I love this photo of him, even though it's a few months old.

The Garden

OMG the garden!  Beans are sprouting, the zuchinni has the beginnings of flowers, the snow peas are growing like crazy, and even the cucumber has finally woken up.  

These photos were taken a week ago: the lettuce has grown *lots* since then.  We're able to make a salad every night now, I'd say.  And the perpetual basil is almost enough for a pesto.

Craft
I'm working on a purple and black skull slouch hat for M for Halloween.  She found the pattern and asked if I thought I could make it: it looked a little complicated, but it's turned out to be mostly straightfoward, and I'm really enjoying it.  It's actually much further along than this photo would suggest: I'm onto the fourth row of skulls and the first decrease.  It's a fascinating pattern because it begins at the brim and works up to the crown, where most hats I've seen work the other way.

And on Sunday I got out the sewing machine and started working on some Halloween bunting.  I'm planning a blog post on the bunting itself, but I'm now away until the 25th of October, which won't leave me much time to get it done (the bunting, not the post) before Halloween.  There are many more flags than I had kind of thought - which was my fault for the choices I made - but still.

Meanwhile - I'm at a work conference this week down in Melbourne.  I'm hoping to finish the hat and a bunch of poppies this week, as well as start working up some blogposts for the future.

Almost instaneous review: the new Project Life App

I haven't yet written anything like what I meant to about Project Life, but the release of the Project Life App may just have made it all even easier.

I put this layout together very quickly this afternoon, basically as a demonstration, and to try out the Just Add Colo(u)r kit, which is available as an in-app purchase for the grand price of $2.49 AUD.  For the Just Add Colo(u)r kit, which has been coveted by PLers the world over.  Or maybe just by me.  Who knows.

I've not been big on square photos, but I've been using Instagram more often of late, so more of my photos will be starting off as squares.  But I do love the pictures on the cards, and I'm really looking forward to playing with it.  Because $2.49!

But the point of my post is to review the Brand! New! Project Life app that was only just released a few hours ago.

The app sells for $3.49 AUD (I think?  I need to wait for the credit card statement to come through) and comes with four included kits: Kraft, Midnight, and Strawberry Core Kits, and the School themed cards.  The included layouts are designs A, C, D, K, L, N, P, and U, and Squared Away 9, 10 and 15.

In-app purchases at the moment are in the picture to the left, along with their prices in AUD: I think the Everyday Adventure edition is from the Stampin' Up collaboration?   Also, while I initially thought that this screencap from the App Store had all of the current in-app purchases, I think there are actually two other Extra Layout packages.  

When you open the app, there's a skippable video from Becky Higgins if, like me, you're just NOT a video person.  Then you get to the home screen:  

The help text will go away after a while - it disappeared for me and I had to go into the "info" section to get it back again for this screenshot.

"Make a page" is the obvious starting place, where you put pictures and cards together into traditional PL Layouts.  

"Make a collage" is how you can put smaller photos into 6x4s for easier printing, or 6x8s for the new 6x8 albums.  There's a good variety of layouts for collages in both 6x4 and 6x8, and in the 6x4 collection, some layouts I hadn't thought of using before.  I can totally see this replacing A Beautiful Mess and Frame Ur Life, which are the two apps I'm using at the moment (the ads in Frame Ur Life are driving me totally nuts and I'll be glad to dump it, but it had layouts that ABM didn't - and this app does!)  I'm also looking forward to seeing whether I can use the collages to do enlarged versions of photos to use in standard 12x12 layouts - something which I did for the layout a couple weeks ago that I haven't finished yet.

"My Library" collects your Work In Progress, completed pages and completed collages, the kits you own and then links to the additional kits available (currently Americana, Plus One, Azure, Daydreamer, Everyday Adventure, Honey, Just Add Colo(u)r, Road Trip, Seafoam, and Summer.  Becky's announcement post for the app says

"each month we’ll be releasing more collections until ultimately we’ll have almost ALL of the collections available in the app."

On to a slightly closer look at "Make a page":

Tapping on any square will zoom in and give the option of choosing a photo or a card, and once you have chosen "card" instead of photo, which kit and then which card you want.

You can drag and drop photos to swap them between positions, which I love because it's just like I do when I'm working on a physical layout.  And once you're done, the export/save button lets you share directly to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or by email or sms.  The export button lets you save a full-sized layout as either 8x8 or 12x12 in the camera roll for uploading via dropbox or whatever other method you choose (which is how I got the layout at the top of this post.

Things I hope are coming:

I hope that in the future you'll be able to:

• add text to filler cards
• change the justification of text within a filler card - I often want a centered heading and then left justified text.  If you can do that, I haven't worked out how yet.
• [Edit: Oh, and a plain/neutral cardstock kit, preferably included free, but I'd probably pay for it.  Especially because I'm going to use this at least as much for planning as for saved layouts.]
• Share directly to Pinterest.

And I really hope that the Cats themed cards will be added, and soon, because it's the kittyboys' album that I do digitally.

Conclusion

I can totally see myself using this to plan out my layouts before I print my photos.  It's going to make the visualisation a breeze - I'm doing this already for last week's spread, because for Reasons I haven't yet got the photos printed up.  I can also see myself using the collage feature a LOT, especially for the couple of 6x8 albums I have.  The kittyboys' album is so going to be created on this app, and I can really see the advantage for people who haven't gone and bought umpteen Core Kits and things like that - which is why I'm already recommending it to a couple of friends who I think will love the ease and the digitalness.  Yes, I just made that word up.

It really is as great as the publicity said it would be, and the prices are so much lower than I think everyone was expecting.

Questions or requests for screencaps, ask away and I'll do my best.  I'm happy to champion this app, because I love it already.

Catterday - 13 September 2014

It's been a while since I gave you a Catterday post, and I'm sorry for that.

Our kitty boys have been ours for almost a school term now - next Saturday is the first day of the school holidays, and it was on the first day of the last school holidays that we brought our boys home.

They've got us beautifully trained up, I'd say.  But it's become very clear that the natural habitat of a cat is the box.

World Cat Day 2014

I'm told that it is World Cat Day.

So we're going to change things up a little and have Catterday a day early.  Tomorrow I'll post about poppies.

I diddn't end up posting last Catterday. I was going to post about how Bard has learned to open sliding doors and can now get into the closets (OMG!) but I still don't have a good picture of that.

What I do have a good picture of is Bion.

Yep, in the dishwasher.

There's a saying in Project Life circles used in relation to getting photos of awesome moments in the lives of children - when they've pulled the flour down on top of themselves, or are proudly showing you the crayon drawing they've just finished... on the wall.  It's "don't get mad, get the camera".  

Bion in the dishwasher was one of those moments for me.

Happy World Cat Day!

Week 31 at Chez Stutters

There was no more Tour de France but there was the Commonwealth Games to watch! On Monday night my choir director announced his pending retirement from choral music, which is sad, although not unexpected as he's at least 84, and entirely deaf in one ear.  Given the repetoire he's given us for the August concert, I think he's announced it now to give us the impetus to practice really hard.  (Which it kind of did, in that I really really meant to practice this past week.)

I honestly can't remember anything of great interest happening between Tuesday and Thursday, which doesn't mean that it didn't, just that I can't remember it.  On Friday night we went straight from me finishing work at 6pm to the 6.30pm preview screening of Guardians of the Galaxy which was spectacularly awesome.  Would watch again, absolutely.

Saturday was the Farmers Market in the morning, and in the evening we had some friends over for takeaway and Trivial Pursuit (fabulous fun).  Sunday was church for me, then back to the movies for a $10 session of Sunshine on Leith, which I really enjoyed.  Definition of a toe-tapper, and beautifully shot.  Spike from Press Gang (Dexter Fletcher) grew up into an awesome director.

Fish for dinner, which drove the feline population just a tad nutty.  Poor darlings.  They couldn't work out why we kept evicting them from the dining room table.

Week 30 at Chez Stutters (and Catterday)

Unusually, I was ready to print out my my Project Life photos for the previous *on Monday*, which is my general goal, but rarely ever met.  But it's indicative of this week that my problem wasn't sorting *through* photos, but picking up photos from random places on the internet (well, not actually random: I knew I wanted things about La Course and the Commonwealth Games and Lior) to supplement not many photos at all.

It was a mostly non-eventful week in Chez-Stutters-land.  Work (for me) sucked, which meant a lot of nights of coming home, whinging, crocheting poppies and baby blankets, patting the cats and watching the Tour de France.

On Friday night we went from my work out for dinner and then to a Lior concert.  The support act was Domini Forster, who was incredibly awesome.  Not that Lior wasn't, because he was.  His very first song I thought would be brilliant for use in worship, and that was well before he sang Avinu Malekeinu and told us about the recording of "Compassion" with Nigel Westlake.

Photo not taken by me: The Cube staff with Lior, Domini Forster, and Phoebe who supports Domini.

The rest of the weekend was very blah.  Chores, cleaning, Tour-watching, laying around watching the cats, etc. 

It was *so* blah that I forgot to write my Catterday post.

So here you go, two for the price of one.

It's another edition of who's the king of the castle.  The boys have gotten more used to the cat tree/cat gym in the last couple weeks, to the point that there are now spirited arguments as to who gets to sleep up the top.  The top, by the way, is the only decent part of it: none of the rest seems to count at all.

I couldn't believe how beautifully they posed for this photo!

Week 27 at Chez Stutters

This last week both of us have been on holidays: I got in early at work and demanded annual leave during school holidays, and I got it. We'd initially been planning to go to Canberra for a few days (in July, I know!) but the costs associated with the dishwasher and the heater put paid to that idea.  Instead we essentially had a staycation.

It also meant that we could move up getting our cats by a week, and I am so glad we did that. As you may have noticed from photos and Facebook comments and Catterday posts, we love and adore our new kitties: Bishop Bion and Bard. A great deal of time this week has been devoted to getting to know them and spoiling them rotten. 

Elseweek, we went to two movies (How to Train Your Dragon 2 on Tuesday, and Jersey Boys on Friday), introduced various people to the cats, had one teenage boy over to play Xbox to get him out of his mother's hair, and went to Wangaratta to buy an exercise bike that we haven't yet assembled. That may be tonight's job. 

I did lots of crochet (finished another UFO) and Project Life, and then there was the Weekend. 

On Saturday, we took a group of 45 school kids to Melbourne for OzComicCon. Country school kids. Some of whom had never been to anything even remotely similar, and certainly not something with the volume of crowds of an OzComicCon that included a Dr Who companion (Arthur Darville), an X-Man (Shawn Ashmore), MacGyver, Freddy Kruger, and a Veronica Mars star (Jason Dohring) among the guests. Some of them were a little overwhelmed. Some of them coped fine, and we had to break up sword fights on the bus on the way home. I got to chat to Aaron Ashmore from Warehouse 13 and get Darville's autograph, and took advantage of Madman's lower Con prices to buy up three more volumes of Ooku, a Tiptree-winning Manga that I bought the first four volumes of at Supanova back in April. 

On Sunday, thanks to the good offices of Jaime Schmidt, I had been informed that the Craft Alive fair was on in Wodonga, and I managed to convince M to go with me.  I honestly didn't buy that much: just three paper pads, 14 rolls of washi tape, some brads, and two ink pads.

Finally, the Tour began on Saturday evening, and even without Cadel Evans riding, and with Simon Gerrans nasty crash on the first stage, I'm really enjoying it.  I've watched a good stretch of both stages so far, although with going back to work today, who knows how I'll go hereafter.  I must remember to put in for the day after the final stage off work, however.

And that's been our (very full, apparently) week.

Catterday report - 5 July

In order to keep the cat blogging to a minimum: and because, God forgive me, I actually find "Catterday" kind of cute - welcome to Chez Stutters' Catterday post: a weekly blether about what the boys have been doing this week.

We've had the boys for a week, now. We've learned that Bion is brave and Bard is clever, and that neither of them like closed doors. Bard has a very strange thing for ankles, and Bion loves high places. Any movement in the kitchen is interpreted as "feeding time for kitties". They adore their pink fluffy boa that came from their wonderful foster-mummies.

 

They both sleep on our bed already, taking up lots of space, as any good cat knows he should. 

They are absolutely adorable and we love them sooooo much. 

Week 26 at Chez Stutters

Part of my motivation for posting about our week just gone is so that when I get behind with Project Life, I have a way to remind myself what went on.  I've just finished catching up on a number of weeks of PL, and would have loved to have something like this to look back on easily.

It was the last week of the school term, and reports were pretty much done (hooray!).  In house news, we finally got the heater fixed (although that's still worth a post all on its own (OMG saga!)), for half a day thought that fixing the heater had killed the hot water, and generally wanted - yet again - to do violence to the previous owners of the house.

I lost my voice almost entirely, and ended up either working at home or being on sick leave for the majority of the week.  I spent a lot of time in the craft room, but cleaning up for the immenent kitties turned the room messy again, so it's not entirely done yet.  I finished off the Kobo case and a Cat Mat for the new arrivals.

On Saturday we went out to see the yarn-bombed Yellow Submarine, and after that collected our darling delightful kitties, Bard and Bishop-Biondello.

On Sunday I went to church and got elected to the Joint Nominating Committee for finding a new Minister.  We cooked Risotto in the rice cooker and decided we really must make better use of the Risotto function than we do right now.  The kitties settled in gradually...

[Finished Object]: a mat for cats

Bishop helpfully wanders into shot with his cat mat

I'm always reading more than one book at a time.

When it comes to craft projects, I'm the same (have you seen my UFOs list?  And that's the short one.)

I don't always jump into a new project the moment I have the inspiration for it, but this one had a timeline involved.  Two days before we were due to pick up our adorable new cats, I realised that they might like a blanket for their carrier.

Having frogged my first attempt at the baby afghan, I had multiple balls of Patons Jet with no intended project any more. And as I was sorting out my craft room I found the Modal Vera Marvel 'Parrot' that I'd bought for the edging of the LoriBlankeet, a fabulous rainbow yarn perfect for the kitties joining a queer household.

I used the same basic principle as the baby afghan; two yarns, a large hook (10mm) and loose tension. But I changed the pattern, to two rows of trebles and one of DC. It's worked up beautifully quickly, although I don't think I've followed the pattern entirely without mistakes.

What I've learned from this project:

The great thing about the large tension in this is I've finally been able to work out where I've been accidentally adding stitches all this time. It's fantastic to finally work that out and it's going to make other projects much more straight forward in the future.

A bonus:
I had a small amount of the Moda Vera "Parrot" left over, and I worked it up into a headband for me.  There are times when you just want something subtle-but-not-subtle in rainbow colours, and this seemed just right.

A little pre-warning...

I feel it only fair to warn readers of this blog (should there be any) that Chez Stutters is about to get two new inhabitants on Saturday (aka "Catterday").

I will try very hard not to turn this into a cat blog, but I'm just warning you all that Bard (left) and Bishop will quite likely make their presence felt, even in cyberspace.